CHICAGO — The last time Hillary Clinton appeared in person before a Democratic National Convention, the year was 2016, the city was Philadelphia and Clinton was accepting her party’s nomination to run for president in what her audience thought would be a shoo-in of a race against Donald Trump.

“Standing here as my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s mother, I’m so happy this day has come,” Clinton, the first woman nominated for president by a major party, said that night.

Clinton Celebrates Harris at DNC

Eight years later, Clinton came out of semiretirement to return to a Democratic convention, this time in Chicago, to celebrate a woman — Kamala Harris — who is trying to do what Clinton was unable to do: win. It was a generational handoff at a convention that has become all about generational change, from a 76-year-old former first lady to the 59-year-old vice president.

But it was also a poignant reminder of how close Clinton came to breaking the “highest and hardest glass ceiling,” as she had put it in her concession speech.

“Tonight,” she said Monday night, “so close to breaking through once and for all, I want to tell you what I see through all those cracks, and why it matters for each and every one of us.”

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“On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president of the United States,” Clinton said, her words drowned out by the cheers of delegates rising to their feet.

In many ways, Clinton’s appearance was a much-delayed opportunity for Democrats to honor this woman who has been a fixture in the party since 1992, when a convention in New York nominated her husband, Bill, to run for president. In 2020, Clinton addressed the convention remotely, a face on a screen, speaking from her living room in Chappaqua, New York, a reflection of the pared-down convention staged in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

This time, she stepped out onto the stage and was greeted with wall of cheers and applause that lasted more than 90 seconds before Clinton was able to quiet the crowd and begin speaking. In the hall, some delegates wept as they watched her return to the stage.

“She gave me the hope to believe,” said Myra Mills Tschirhart, 35, of Fort Worth, Texas. “She’s talking about the glass ceiling as something you look through, something you can see through. It’s just beautiful.”

The former first lady began by noting that her mother, Dorothy Rodham, was born in Chicago before women had the right to vote. Clinton described taking her daughter, Chelsea, to see Geraldine Ferraro be celebrated in 1984 as the first woman nominated as vice president. And she recalled her own moment in 2016 in Philadelphia.

“It was honor of my life to accept our party’s nomination for president,” Clinton said. “Nearly 66 million Americans voted for a future where there are no ceilings on our dreams.”

“Well, my friends, the future is here,” she added.

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Clinton Looks Towards the Future

Over the course of 16 minutes, Clinton did not just dwell on the past. She mocked the man who defeated her in 2016. “Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial,” she said. “When he woke up, he’d made his own kind of history — the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.”

At that, the delegates rose to their feet again, repurposing a line that Trump used against Clinton when he ran against her: “Lock him up,” they chanted. Clinton paused, nodded and smiled, but did not join in.

As she closed her remarks, Clinton, clearly speaking from experience, cautioned her audience not to be lulled by polls that suggest Harris is ahead. “We have him on the run now,” she said. “But no matter what the polls say, we can’t give up.”

“I want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to know I was here, that we were here, and that we were with Kamala every step of the way,” she said. “This is our time, America. This is when we stand up. This is when we break through.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Adam Nagourney/Jamie Kelter Davis
c. 2024 The New York Times Company